Monday, November 28, 2011

via towleroad.com

Opinion

J. Edgar Hoover, ‘Sex Deviates’ and My Godfather

Charles Francis

In 1956, the tabloid magazine Confidential published a lurid exposé on Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr., the writer's godfather.

By DUDLEY CLENDINEN

Published: November 25, 2011

Baltimore
JUST before Christmas in 1952, J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the
F.B.I., let President Dwight D. Eisenhower know that the man Eisenhower
had appointed as secretary to the president, his friend and chief of
staff, my godfather, Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr., was a homosexual.
It was part of a pattern of persecution that would destroy thousands of
lives and careers. Earlier that year, the American Psychiatric
Association’s manual had classified homosexuality as a kind of madness,
and Republican senators had charged that homosexuality in the Truman
administration was a national security threat. Hoover — the subject of Clint Eastwood’s new film — was determined to stave off such threats.
A public Puritan with a compulsively bureaucratic and controlling
personality, he built an intricate system of files on people of
influence — personal and confidential, official and unofficial, and all
full of dirt. The most damning were the voluminous “Sex Deviate” files
on famous actors, syndicated columnists, senators, governors, business
moguls and princes of the Roman Catholic Church, just to name a few.
There was one on Adlai E. Stevenson, the Democratic nominee for
president, because some college basketball players being investigated by
the F.B.I. for game-fixing claimed that Stevenson, one of “the two
best-known homosexuals in the state,” was nicknamed “Adeline.” There was
even a file on Eisenhower himself, recording rumors of an affair with
Kay Summersby, his driver in Britain during the war.
One was devoted to my godfather because, while he had years of
experience in politics and foreign affairs and working for his father,
Arthur H. Vandenberg Sr. — a Republican senator from Michigan with a
mistress and a file of his own — he also drank, and he wasn’t discreet.
Apparently, the file held reports of some incidents with two enlisted
men at Camp Lee, Va., in 1942, before he served with and became friends
with my father. Worse, at the time Eisenhower appointed him to the White
House, he was sharing an apartment in Washington with another man. This
was not uncommon. But the other man had been arrested on some morals
charge. That was enough for Ike, whom Hoover later described, to an aide
to Richard M. Nixon, as “astounded.”
Arthur wasn’t a fighter. He folded. He checked into a hospital,
complaining of stomach problems, and resigned the appointment for
“health reasons” three months after Eisenhower’s inauguration. He was a
pale, fleshy, thin-haired man — sort of like Hoover, actually. And he
was a bachelor. Like Hoover. He had never had a girlfriend, or seriously
dated women. Like Hoover, Arthur seemed to spend all his free time with
men. Hoover, after all, had lived with his mother until she died in
1938, and by then, he was practically inseparable from the natty, lean,
quiet Clyde Tolson, whom he had hired in 1928 and promoted meteorically,
making him associate director, the No. 2 position in the F.B.I., in
1947.
J. Edgar and Clyde had separate offices and separate houses, but they
had lunch together, dinner together, rode to work in Hoover’s car
together, attended private dinners and receptions in Washington
together, went to the horse races together, and vacationed in the same
hotel suites together. By Hoover’s standards, if they hadn’t been the
director and associate director of the F.B.I., they would have been in
its Sex Deviate files together, because there sure was a lot of talk
about them. Hoover sent agents to squash the talk and threaten the
talkers wherever it occurred.
But at least they had each other. Eastwood’s film imagines a violent
kiss between them, but my guess, as someone who loves men, is that they
were never lovers. They weren’t built for it. They were too prim, too
rigid, too Victorian. The only way Hoover could be comfortable in such a
public relationship, I think, was because he knew it wasn’t sexual in
private, whether he desired it to be or not. Hoover was too aware of the
power of a secret. How could he permit anyone — even Clyde — to have
something on him?
As far as I know, Arthur Jr. never had a full relationship, either. What
he had was an F.B.I. file. He left Washington, moved to Coconut Grove,
Fla., bought a house, drove a convertible, made extensive foreign policy
visits to the Middle and Far East and Asia, and became a popular
lecturer on American foreign policy at the University of Miami.

And Eisenhower had stayed in touch, including Arthur at a White House
stag dinner, having him in again to talk about his conversations with
foreign leaders and suggesting to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
that they ought to find a place for him. Arthur seemed on the verge of
resurrection. That ended in late 1956, when Confidential, a smut and
scandal tabloid probably fed by the F.B.I., published a lurid exposé
about him.
Arthur resigned from the university, and disconnected his phone. The
couple of times my parents saw him in that period, he seemed unfocused,
drinking too much, and restless to be out of their company. In 1964,
when President Lyndon B. Johnson’s close friend and aide, Walter
Jenkins, was arrested for performing oral sex in a men’s room, L.B.J.
reminded reporters that the Republican, Eisenhower, had had a problem,
too, and his name was Arthur Vandenberg.
It must have seemed as if it would never end. But then, on Jan. 18,
1968, Arthur died at the age of 60. My father was then editor of The
Tampa Tribune, and friends at The Miami Herald told him that Arthur had
killed himself. But there was no such public report, and when, years
later, I asked an investigative reporter friend of mine in Miami to look
for the coroner’s report or death certificate, he could find nothing.
I had a feeling growing up — and later, as I realized I was gay, and
came to terms with it in my 40s — that something must have happened to
my godfather. He had disappeared from my childhood. The only memory I
have is of him driving away, in a convertible. I was just 8 when Hoover
outed him. I didn’t know what had broken the relationship. It wasn’t
until the early ’90s, when I asked if my parents thought he had been
gay, that they told me of his death, and of one night, in a Spanish
restaurant in Tampa, when they were shocked to see Arthur emerge from
behind the curtain of a private dining nook with a tipsy young airman.
In all those years, they had never spoken of it, even to each other.
Two weeks after Arthur resigned in 1953, Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450,
which mandated the firing of any federal employees guilty of “sexual
perversion.” But apparently, he felt badly about Arthur. The Kameny Papers Project,
an archival project named for Franklin E. Kameny, a major gay rights
leader who died in October, has found a series of personal notes and
letters from Ike and Mamie to Arthur, regretting that he wasn’t with
them. “I feel very distressed about your health,” the president wrote in
one. “I feel in some respects guilty.”
When Hoover died in May 1972, his personal secretary shredded a mass of
his private files. In December 1973, the board of the American
Psychiatric Association voted to rescind its 1952 decision to classify homosexuality as insanity.
They had been wrong, the directors of the association said. It had been a mistake.

Though Dam Brownback has apologized for his lunatic fringe staff, Emma Sullivan still voices concern about her future over a simple matter of exercising her right to free speech. She did it, which is great but she's still living in fear over possible retribution from "the system." Will we ever be actually free?

Congrats Emma, fear not, the truth shall set you free.

PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. -- In the uproar
over a Prairie Village teenager's tweet about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback
during a school trip, it is the governor who is apologizing.
“My
staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that, I apologize. Freedom of
speech is among our most treasured freedoms,” said a statement from
Brownback's office.

Emma Sullivan was in Topeka last week as part of a Kansas Youth
in Government program when she posted an insult about Brownback on her
Twitter page. Someone in the governor's office flagged the tweet and
reported it to event organizers.Though she initially said her
principal ordered her to apologize in writing, Sullivan said on Monday
that it was more of a strong recommendation that she do so."They thought I should write the letter," she said.Sullivan said she would not apologize."They
shouldn't have been Gov. Brownback's priority to see who is tweeting
about him and make it a priority -- to find me and let the principal
know what I was tweeting," Sullivan said.
Brownback Apologizes In Teen Tweet Furor
Sullivan, who is a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School,
said she really wrote the comment as a joke and never actually said it."I don't think that I did anything wrong. I just voiced my opinion," Sullivan said.She said the joke was really intended for the other people along on the trip."It
wasn't like I was trying to make everyone believe I did some heroic
thing," she said. "It was just supposed to be (directed) at my friend
Ryan."

KMBC's Marcus Moore reported that Sullivan had just over 60 followers on her Twitter account Monday. Now she has thousands."It's shocking to see how many people stood behind me for this," Sullivan said.Moore reported that the whole experience has left its mark."I
think you should still watch what you say, especially if you're in my
boat, you know? Looking for colleges or trying to get a job. I think if
you have an opinion and you want to say it, that's more power to you,"
Sullivan said.Sullivan said she has been getting requests for her
tweet to be put on T-shirts and bumper stickers. She's even been
invited to speak at a rally about freedom of speech.The school district released the following statement late Monday morning:"District
officials have reviewed recent events surrounding the reported tweet by
Shawnee Mission East High School student Emma Sullivan. The district
acknowledges a student's right to freedom of speech and expression is
constitutionally protected."The district has not censored Miss
Sullivan nor infringed upon her freedom of speech. She is not required
to write a letter of apology to the governor. Whether and to whom any
apologies are issued will be left to the individuals involved."The
issue has resulted in many teachable moments concerning the use of
social media. The district does not intend to take any further action on
this matter."Sullivan said she hopes that is the case."I'm
trusting them that nothing is going to happen. That they're going to
take care of me and the situation," she said. "I'm just hoping all this
works out at this point."

PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS (KCTV) -
Emma Sullivan doesn't tweet
often. Most of her recent twitter posts refer to the new Twilight movie.
But one tweet, posted Monday, got her called into the principal's
office, with a request for a letter of apology to the Governor.
"He
(the principal) started off with saying that he had to do a bunch of
damage control. And that I needed to do damage control and that I needed
to fix this," said Sullivan.
She made the
tweet while on a field trip to the Kansas state capital. Governor Sam
Brownback was addressing the group and she voiced her opinion on the
social media site.
"I tweeted: Just made mean comments to gov Brownback and told him he sucked, in person," said Sullivan.
One
issue she now has is how the district found out. The school was
informed by an email sent by a Brownback staffer who forwarded her
remark to a district official.
"I think it was a cowardly move for him to go after her," said Julie Sullivan, Emma's mother.
The
district spokeswoman said she wasn't aware of any particulars but said,
generally that "Students on school-sponsored field trips are
representing the school. Students may express their personal beliefs,
views, and opinions, as long as they do so appropriately and in
accordance with school policies."
"I didn't say anything that I couldn't say at school. I'm pretty sure I didn't cuss," said Sullivan.
As for the language she did use, she and her mom said it's perfectly acceptable for the medium.
"This
is the lingo for this generation. And it's not entertaining if she
said, ‘well my political views differ' and went on to explain in a more
intellectual form," said Julie.
Sullivan said she hasn't written the letter yet and hasn't decided whether she will.
KCTV5's
Betsy Webster contacted Brownback's press people by cell phone and
email and did not hear back, though it is worth noting that the office
was closed Wednesday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

and then...KANSAS CITY, MO (AP) -
A Kansas teenager who wrote a
disparaging tweet about Gov. Sam Brownback is rejecting her high school
principal's demand that she apologize.
Emma Sullivan told The Associated Press on Sunday that she's not sorry and an apology letter wouldn't be sincere.
The Shawnee Mission East senior was in Topeka
last week when she sent a tweet from the back of a crowd of students
listening to Brownback. It read: "Just made mean comments at gov.
brownback and told him he sucked, in person."
She actually made no such comment. But
Brownback's office saw her post, and she was called into the principal's
office. Her apology is due Monday.
Sullivan has received a wave of support, with
many saying she shouldn't have been targeted. Her Twitter account now
boasts 3,000 followers.

Out of the mouths of babes.

And the Principal of Shawnee Mission East should be ashamed of him or herself.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

I am not much on conspiracy theories, but something this public, and of such magnitude, doesn't happen because some guy is waiting in a kitchen with a gun on the off chance a Presidential candidate shows up.

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of the
1968 assassination of presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy,
should be freed from prison or granted a new trial based on "formidable
evidence" asserting his innocence and "horrendous violations" of his
rights, defense attorneys said in federal court papers filed this week.
In a U.S. District Court brief, Sirhan's lawyers also say that an
expert analysis of recently uncovered evidence shows two guns were fired
in the assassination and that Sirhan's revolver was not the gun that
shot Kennedy.
Attorneys William F. Pepper and Laurie D. Dusek also allege that
fraud was committed in Sirhan's 1969 trial when the court allowed a
substitute bullet to be admitted as evidence for a real bullet removed
from Kennedy's neck.
The attorneys further assert that Sirhan was hypno-programmed to be a
diversion for the real assassin and allege that Sirhan would be easily
blamed for the assassination because he is an Arab. Sirhan, 67, is a
Christian Palestinian born in Jerusalem whose parents brought him and
his siblings to America in the 1950s.
Sirhan "was an involuntary participant in the crimes being committed
because he was subjected to sophisticated hypno programming and memory
implantation techniques which rendered him unable to consciously control
his thoughts and actions at the time the crimes were being committed,"
court papers said.
The California Attorney General's office declined to comment Saturday
on Sirhan's court filings, said spokeswoman Lynda Gledhill.
Court papers filed by Sirhan's attorneys say the state "refuses to
acknowledge that hypno programming/mind control is not fiction but
reality and has been used for years by the U.S. military, Central
Intelligence Agency and other covert organizations.
"Though the practices of hypno programming/mind control is hardly
new, the public has been shielded from the darker side of the practice.
The average person is unaware that hypnosis can and is used to induct
antisocial conduct in humans," Sirhan's court filings say.
Pepper and Dusek represented Sirhan earlier this year in his
unsuccessful request for parole from Pleasant Valley State Prison in
Coalinga, California, 200 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. He is
serving a life sentence.
Sirhan was convicted of killing Kennedy and wounding five other
people during the June 5, 1968, shooting inside the kitchen service
pantry of the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
Three bullets struck Kennedy's body while a fourth bullet passed
harmlessly through the shoulder of his suit coat. Kennedy, the most
seriously wounded of the six victims, died the next day. The other five
people survived their wounds.
The substitute bullet was introduced in the trial as the actual
bullet removed from Kennedy's neck and alleged to have been matched to
Sirhan's gun, Pepper said.
Pepper and Dusek are requesting a hearing to present dramatic new findings that they say show a kitchen crossfire in the hotel.
An analysis of a recently uncovered audiotape of the assassination
shows that in addition to the eight gunshots fired by Sirhan's
Iver-Johnson handgun, five other shots were fired by a second gun from
the opposite direction, Sirhan's attorneys said.
The sound recording "clearly showed that 13 shots were fired in the
pantry, and Sirhan's gun had only eight shots, so it definitely means
there was a second shooter," Pepper told CNN.
The tape was made 40 feet away from the crime scene by freelance
newspaper reporter Stanislaw Pruszynski and is the only known recording
of the gunshots fired in Robert Kennedy's assassination. The recording
was uncovered in 2004 by CNN's Brad Johnson, who had it independently
examined by two experts, Spence Whitehead and Philip Van Praag. They
concluded, individually, that more than eight shots were captured in the
tape.Watch Johnson's 2009 CNN "Backstory"report on the experts' separate findings.
In their court filings, Pepper and Dusek are focusing on Van Praag's
analysis. Van Praag concludes that the Pruszynski recording is authentic
and reveals that, over a five-second period in the pantry, two guns
fired 13 shots, exceeding the capacity of the eight-shot Iver-Johnson
Cadet -- the only gun that Sirhan possessed and had no opportunity to
reload.
Van Praag rules out the possibility that any of the 13 shots were
echoes, ricochets or non-gunshot sounds. He also finds that some of the
shots were fired too rapidly, at intervals too close together for all
the shots to have come from Sirhan's inexpensive handgun. Van Praag
further concludes that the five shots fired opposite the direction of
Sirhan's eight shots displayed a "frequency anomaly" indicating the
second gun's make and model were different from Sirhan's weapon.
Pepper said that witnesses reported Sirhan was standing several feet
in front of Kennedy and firing nearly horizontally while the medical
evidence showed Kennedy's body and clothing were struck by four bullets
fired point-blank from behind the Senator at steep upward angles.
Pepper said witnesses reported that bystanders grabbed Sirhan
immediately after he fired his first two shots and that they had his
firing arm pinned against a steam table, forcing Sirhan to fire his
gun's remaining six bullets away from Kennedy, thus striking other
people instead.
For decades following the 1968 assassination, Sirhan had claimed he
could not remember the Kennedy shooting. Pepper and Dusek argue this is
because he was "hypno-programmed" to fire his gun in the pantry and to
then forget the shooting, his programming and those who had programmed
him.
In 2008, Pepper hired a Harvard University memory expert who says he
got the imprisoned Sirhan to recall the Kennedy shooting for the first
time.
That expert is Daniel Brown, an associate clinical professor in
psychology at Harvard Medical School who submitted a statement to the
parole board after interviewing Sirhan for 60 hours over a three-year
period. Brown says Sirhan now remembers that when he fired his shots in
the pantry he believed he was at a gun range and shooting at circular
targets, according to Pepper.
Brown believes Sirhan was programmed to do this so as to cause a
distraction in the pantry, allowing a second gunman to secretly shoot
Kennedy from behind, according to Sirhan's attorneys. Brown is described
in Sirhan's court papers as "one of the world's foremost experts in
hypno programming."
Brown says Sirhan now remembers hearing loud sounds he describes as
"the thunderclap of other bullets" being fired by another gun in the
pantry, the defense attorneys said. Brown says Sirhan also recalls
seeing flashes in front of him that he associates with gunfire inside
the pantry but not coming from his own weapon, according to Pepper.
Pepper accused both prosecutors and Sirhan's lead attorney, Grant
Cooper, who has since died, of misconduct in the 1969 trial. At that
time, Cooper was under federal indictment for illegally possessing grand
jury minutes in an unrelated case, but the indictment was dropped after
Sirhan's sentencing, Pepper said.
"The state suppressed, destroyed and withheld a great deal of
evidence," Pepper said in an interview Saturday. Sirhan's "counsel
provided totally ineffective assistance and collaborated with the
prosecution in violation of his 6th Amendment rights.
"The prosecution told the judge in chambers that we do not have
foundation for some of our ballistics evidence, and the defense counsel
immediately jumped in and said, don't worry about that, we will
stipulate that all of the ballistics evidence is what you say it is,"
Pepper said.
Los Angeles County prosecutors couldn't immediately comment Saturday, a spokeswoman said.
Said Pepper: "This is one of the most egregious miscarriages of
justice imaginable, and because it relates to the assassination of a man
who would likely have been president of the United States, the feeling
of sadness is irrepressible in these circumstances."
Pepper said he personally knew Kennedy and his family, and ran his
campaign in the heavily Republican Westchester County in New York when
Kennedy, a Democrat, successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1964.
Sirhan never became a U.S. citizen, so if he were released from
prison, he would be deemed an illegal immigrant and likely be deported
to Jordan, where he has extended family, Pepper said.
In 1968, the 42-year-old Kennedy, younger brother of the assassinated
President John F. Kennedy, was a leading contender for the Democratic
presidential nomination against Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Sen.
Eugene McCarthy.
On the night of his assassination, Kennedy had just appeared on live
television in an Ambassador Hotel ballroom, where he had claimed victory
over McCarthy in the California primary election. Moments later, he was
fatally wounded in the hotel service pantry while on his way to a press
conference set for a small banquet room just beyond the pantry. The
shooting in the pantry was not captured by any cameras.
At Sirhan's 1969 trial, prosecutors argued Sirhan killed Kennedy
because of statements the New York senator made about the United States
sending fighter jets to aid Israel.
But in the court papers filed this week, Sirhan's attorneys dismissed
that allegation as a "most speculative motive," without any sworn
statements for substantiation.
Sirhan was the only person arrested in Robert Kennedy's assassination.
And so it goes.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Today we engage in our annual ritual of parades, football, too much food, and hopefully taking stock of our good fortune.
I am, this particular day grateful for real estate brokers who go above and far beyond the call of duty for clients who take half a year to find a house and then inflict their bizarre karma on said broker. For the service, for the many many hours of work, and as a result the friendship, i give thanks.

For my family, who, six months ago offered their poolhouse to me...for six weeks, for their unending support, understanding, and love, i give thanks.

For my dutiful, loyal, loving friends, and their week after week after week of listening to me ruminate about one house after another, for allowing me to spend every friday night in their guest room for six months, and never once questioning me, aloud anyway, about whether i was being realistic about my search I give thanks.

And as I spend thanksging with dear friends whom I cherish I plan to deliver this bit of thanks:

In recognizing whatever powers exist in the Universe and whatever form they may take we give thanks.
We give thanks for our health, particularly Chuck's renewed vigor, despite the number of spare parts such renovations required.
We're thankful for our minds, we're a fortunate group, we've been given good ones, and we're thankful too that we're allowed to share that gift and contribute to the evolution of our culture
We're thankful for the children, whom, despite our frequent and vocal protestations do bring us joy, and give us hope for the future.
In particular we're thankful that we are able to be here together today to acknowledge our friendship and our love for one anothe
Please raise your glasses.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your contributions to my life both big and small.
From your confidence in my abilities, to your perpetual assistance in helping me explore the possibilities. But most of all for your love.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Off for the holiday. Flying on thanksgiving holiday...what was i thinking.

All the recent talk about reforming government is moot. Business is the problem. Was scheduled to close on my new house yesterday. But there was an "undefined snag" on their end. When one is a cash buyer for a house in this economy one should be afforded a little cachet. But nooo.

Reform businesses who issue contracts with conditions for their customers and then do as they damn well please.
So now I have to handle the purchase over the internet, and wire transfer the money...you just know this story will have another chapter don't you.
At any rate have a happy and safe holiday.
And so it goes.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Thursday, November 17, 2011

I am breaking my number two rule and traveling over the Holiday. Gay
family will celebrate between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'll spend
Christmas with the real family. Thanksgiving I want to spend with my
extended family, people I adore and do not see nearly often enough. So
I'm off to New Mexico and several days of peace and harmony with people I
love.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

They are so not done with us.

Seriously, when will we stand up and fight? The police state is moving out OWS protestors from city to city, Big Oil is unveiling it's latest screwing of the American Public, and here we sit taking it like we get paid for it.

By the way, Happy Holidays. Plan to pay 30% more for that Thanksgiving trip you're taking.

Watch stocks you care about

In May 2008, as crude oil steamed toward a July -- and all-time -- high of $147 per barrel, a Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS)
group predicted that black gold's price could move as high as $200
within the following 24 months. Few financial forecasts have ever
received more attention. Instead, during the second half of the year its
price rolled over and began a free fall to near $30 as December brought
the eventful year to a close.
It now appears, however, that Goldman might just have been early in
its prognostication, rather than simply wrong. Oh, I know, light, sweet
crude is currently trading near $100 a barrel, and it would require a
host of major events to drive it to double that level, especially during
2012. But almost unnoticed is a price increase by nearly a third in
just the past month. And far more important, it seems that a number of
game changers can -- and probably will -- occur as we move into the
impending new year. I'm wagering that a host of the potentially
catastrophic events could involve Iraq and its neighbor to the east,
Iran. The result, almost certainly, would be a steep escalation of crude
levies.Swimming in oil?For now, energy affairs in
war-torn Iraq are progressing swimmingly. The country's production has
grown by leaps and bounds since major oil companies from around the
world -- beginning with a BP-led (NYSE: BP) consortium, and later including ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-B)
-- began accepting the government's unusual contractual terms and
started reinvigorating its major (albeit waning) fields. Indeed, with help from Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB)
and its oilfield services compadres, the companies have boosted Iraqi
production from a couple of million barrels a day to 2.6 million daily
barrels in just over a year.
Even more impressive are the seemingly reasonable notions that the
country could reach 9 million barrels a day within a few years. That
number assumes, however, that the companies are able to plug away
unabated. And therein lies the rub. Indeed, a number of emerging speed
bumps will need to be negotiated to prevent production from actually
reverting to previous levels and world crude prices from making the
Goldman Sachs folks appear amazingly prescient.Questionable pullout and the lurking dangers

Last month, President Obama announced a complete pullout of all
U.S. forces from Iraq, thereby making room for as many Iranians as that
country's President Ahmadinejad wishes to deploy to his neighbor's
territory. The Wall Street Journal called the announcement "a
disappointment for U.S. defense officials." There's likely a stronger --
and more appropriate -- term than "disappointment" for those officials,
who likely were discharging volumes of smoke from their ears, as were
the members of Congress who'd demanded that Iraq "tap its oil resources
to pay some of the U.S. war costs," a demand that the White House not
surprisingly refused to support.Nevertheless, watch for dangerous
developments from a combination of the two primarily Shiite-populated
"I" countries. It seems that the potential for a progressively closer
relationship between the pair -- they're already tending to be mutually
supportive on regional issues -- is enhanced by Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki's having resided in Tehran while Hussein was in power. As a
result, he retains a number of contacts in the dangerous land of
Ahmadinejad.

Further, ExxonMobil has ruffled feathers in Iraq by becoming the
first member of Big Oil to reach an agreement to search for oil and gas
in the country's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The Kurdish area is
thought to hold as much as 45 billion barrels of oil and 200,000 billion
cubic feet of gas, amounts approximately comparable to those in Libya.But
while the new deal obviously will provide a substantial opportunity for
Exxon, it has sufficiently raised the dander of Iraq's central
government -- which reportedly sent three letters admonishing the big
company before its Kurdistan agreement was signed -- that it could
ultimately endanger Exxon's license to perpetuate its current work on
southern Iraq's giant West Qurna field. Beyond that, the Kurdistan
Regional Government may have held discussions with Chevron (NYSE: CVX) , which is not currently involved elsewhere in Iraq, and Italy's Eni (NYSE: E) , which is.Obviously,
the primary concern involves the potential for widespread conflicts
between the companies working in Iraq and those that wish to spread
their efforts to the Kurdistan region. According to the Iraq Oil
Ministry's Abdul Mahdi al-Ameedi, "Exxon should choose between either
continuing with its deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government or lose
its contract in southern Iraq."

Clearly more danger lies in Iran's development of nuclear
weaponry, which -- if it weren't already widely known -- was documented
last week in a United Nations report. As part of an effort to provide a
regional counter to the rogue nation, the U.S. is in the process of
formulating a deal to provide the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) with
thousands of "bunker buster" bombs, among other munitions.At the
same time, the Obama administration is reportedly preparing to fortify
the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain,
Oman, Qatar, U.A.E., and Kuwait). Beyond that, concerns are mounting
almost daily regarding the potential of Israeli airstrikes (with or
without U.S. support) against Iran's nuclear facilities.

And finally, within Iraq, minimally publicized Shiite-Sunni
factionalism appears to run the risk of spilling over into a renewed
civil war with the attendant danger of possibly drawing in Shiite Iran
and Sunni Saudi Arabia -- neither of whom are especially fond of each
other to begin with. The normal factionalism has been intensified by the
Shiite Maliki's determination to purge the nation's security and
intelligence forces of those who served in Saddam Hussein's
Sunni-dominated regime.At the same time, with the U.S. about to
complete its role as a peacekeeper in the country, Maliki has yet to
fill a number of ministry posts, given his concern about a coup
emanating from potentially disloyal security units. As such, he remains
personally in charge of the ministries of defense, interior, and
national security.

I could continue to discuss potential difficulties in the oil-rich
Persian Gulf area, along with other exporting countries, such as Libya
and Nigeria. But you get the point: The Middle East and North Africa --
and especially the all-important Iraq-Iran-Saudi Arabia region -- remain
very much a tinderbox, with the potential to drive crude prices to
stratospheric levels.

Monday, November 14, 2011

SCOTLAND: Hundreds Mourn Young Gay Murder Victim Stuart Walker

Hundreds of mourners turned out yesterday for the funeral of Stuart Walker, the young gay man found burned and tied to a lamppost in his Scotland village last month.

Many
of the town’s 9000 inhabitants attended the service. Mr Walker’s
sister, Julie called her brother the “life and soul of our family”. She
said: “You were our ray of sunshine when you were here. And now you will
forever be our brightest star, watching over us.” The day of Stuart’s
death, 22 October, was described as “one of the darkest in Cumnock’s
recent history” by the vicar, Reverend Patterson. Leona Lewis’
Footprints in the Sand was played during the procession, with 600
mourners following the hearse to the town cemetery.

An 18 year-old man has been charged with the murder.

SCOTLAND: Dead Gay Man Found Tied To Lamppost In Possible Hate Crime

A 28 year-old gay man was found tied to lamppost and may have been burned alive in what Scottish police are describing as a possible hate crime.

Detectives today launched a murder inquiry following the grim
discovery, with streets in a nearby industrial estate sealed off as part
of the ongoing investigation. Strathclyde Police confirmed the body had
scorch marks and the victim had suffered horrific injuries. A
spokesperson for the force said relatives of Mr Walker, the former
assistant manager at the Royal Hotel in, Cumnock, have been informed of
his death. Strathclyde Police would not rule out that Mr Walker had been
murdered because of his sexuality and were now closely examining all
aspects of the victim’s life.

A conflicting report says the victim was killed before his body was burned.

The
hotel worker had been out with friends earlier in the night and was
last seen alive by a family friend at about 2.30am. Strathclyde Police
have launched a murder inquiry, with a spokesperson saying Mr Walker had
not "died from his burns" and had been subjected to "a horrific
attack". Officers are not ruling out that Mr Walker was murdered because
of his sexuality.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

When one makes a mistake in our culture it's American to point at someone else and attempt to shift the blame. It's very difficult to stand up and admit in private that you have erred, and in public it's more than doubly difficult.

Today Bret Ratner demonstrated more integrity than I've seen in a long time. He not only resigned his position as Producer of this years Oscar telecast, he issued a letter of public apology, not only to his GLBT friends and co-workers, but to...well everyone.

And though he admits what he did was stupid he's to be applauded for his integrity. His letter gives me no doubt of his sincerity:

An Open Letter to the Entertainment Industry from Brett Ratner
Dear Colleagues,
Over the last few days, I’ve gotten a well-deserved earful from many
of the people I admire most in this industry expressing their outrage
and disappointment over the hurtful and stupid things I said in a number
of recent media appearances. To them, and to everyone I’ve hurt and
offended, I’d like to apologize publicly and unreservedly.
As difficult as the last few days have been for me, they cannot
compare to the experience of any young man or woman who has been the
target of offensive slurs or derogatory comments. And they pale in
comparison to what any gay, lesbian, or transgender individual must deal
with as they confront the many inequalities that continue to plague our
world.
So many artists and craftspeople in our business are members of the
LGBT community, and it pains me deeply that I may have hurt them. I
should have known this all along, but at least I know it now: words do
matter. Having love in your heart doesn’t count for much if what comes
out of your mouth is ugly and bigoted. With this in mind, and to all
those who understandably feel that apologies are not enough, please know
that I will be taking real action over the coming weeks and months in
an effort to do everything I can both professionally and personally to
help stamp out the kind of thoughtless bigotry I’ve so foolishly
perpetuated.
As a first step, I called Tom Sherak this morning and resigned as a
producer of the 84th Academy Awards telecast. Being asked to help put on
the Oscar show was the proudest moment of my career. But as painful as
this may be for me, it would be worse if my association with the show
were to be a distraction from the Academy and the high ideals it
represents.
I am grateful to GLAAD for engaging me in a dialogue about what we
can do together to increase awareness of the important and troubling
issues this episode has raised and I look forward to working with them. I
am incredibly lucky to have a career in this business that I love with
all of my heart and to be able to work alongside so many of my heroes. I
deeply regret my actions and I am determined to learn from this
experience.

Sincerely,
Brett Ratner

Now that's how you apologize. That's how you demonstrate integrity. And if we were smart we'd learn from his example and THEN we'd start to be the country we think we are.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

By this Thursday I will finally be done with my latest show, and thank the Gods! It has been a nightmare from beginning to end. It has also made me rethink my position at the college. If they don't make a move first I'll be outta there in May. It's been a good experience, but it's what it is and it's not gonna change, and that means it's time for me to do something else. Phew.

House number four has turned into a ridiculous exercise with a servicing company in Mumbai that won't communicate nor will they do anything else in a reasonable time frame. So moving on from that too. Found another that I like a lot more, and beginning the process regarding it today. " Maybe this time, I'll get lucky, maybe this time.."

Andy Rooney, an American institution as long as I can remember has died at 92. Good long run Mr. Rooney, thanks for all you did. There were commentaries that I didn't exactly see the point of, but there were many that were spot on as well.

The Occupy protestors are going to have to start making more noise. Just occupying isn't going to get the job done. After a bit the short attention span of American's will just accept them as part of the landscape. They're going to have to get unruly if they want anything to happen. Herman Cain is stealing all the headlines with his antics and his admitted relationship with the Koch brothers. Not to mention that sex sells and he's apparently been trying to get over on almost every woman who's worked for him. Today on CNN.com the fourth story is about Occupy protestors who are wearing the Guy Fawkes masks from V for Vendetta. Much akin to the media's need to interview and film the most outrageous drag queens, glitter boys or leather Daddy's on Gay Pride all the while ignoring the 99% who don't represent that. A willingness to be the media's organ grinder monkey and pander to that mindset could be their undoing. A good action that has to be ongoing needs shock value, yet needs teeth as well.

Why would we not want the bankers and brokers to see and know our faces? We are the 99% and we need to make it known that we are real people who have been affected, nay ruined by the greed and avarice of the 1%. A friend on facebook posted this the other day.

It doesn't get more accurate than that.

The notion that politics is the panacea to our ills is monumentally incorrect. The very idea that we would elect the likes of a George Bush, or a Herman Cain to public office and then entrust such a one blindly with our future is folly.

We can change our world. We can make it what we want it to be, and we have the power to do it. We simply must take the reins and guide ourselves to our chosen destination. There will be obstacles, there will be barriers, barricades, and the faithful will attempt to stop us at every turn. But if your life isn't what you want it to be then you have to change it, and if you don't, if you suffer in silence, live in quiet desperation as it were, then you have only yourself to blame.

Words and ideas can change the world, they can and do make a difference, they have unimaginable power. Just think about how your parents shaped your way of thinking as you grew up with simply the words they spoke. They taught you either to believe in yourself, or to doubt your every thought. They taught you that you had value and worth or they reminded you that you were bad and would never amount to anything. That's the power of words, that's how you shape things. you change them by making the dreams real. You decide what it is that you want and then you simply make a claim that nothing will stop you from achieving it. And it becomes a reality.

It may not become the reality you imagined, compromise is always involved, but in the end if you can stay true to your original intent, you will see the finished product. And it will gratify you. It will validate your commitment to your ideal. But first you must do one thing...you must stand up.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Alas, it doesn't just occur in Texas, it's a worldwide epidemic, perpetrated by people whose minds are filled with the hate they've been taught by the faithful, who have twisted the words in the scriptures to suit their purposes.

via joemygod.com

Burke Burnett says he was punched in the eye, stabbed with a
broken beer bottle and thrown onto a lit burn barrel early Sunday at
a party in Reno, Texas. View more photos of Burnett's injuries below.
A 26-year-old gay man says he was the victim of a brutal hate
crime early Sunday in Reno, Texas — a small town just east of Paris
and about 100 miles northeast of Dallas.
Burke Burnett said he was at a private party at about 1 a.m. when
four men suddenly attacked him, stabbing him at least twice with a
broken beer bottle before throwing him onto a fire. His attackers
yelled things like “pussy-ass faggot,” “gay bitch” and
“cock-sucking punk,” Burnett said.
Burnett said it took 30 stitches to close stab wounds to his back
and forearm, as well as a cut above his left eye. He also sustained
second-degree burns and severe bruises.
“They knew I was gay,” Burnett said Monday. “I’m convinced
they were trying to kill me.”
Jeff Sugg, interim chief of the Reno Police Department, released a
statement Monday afternoon saying: “The Reno Police Department is
currently investigating an aggravated assault that took place last
weekend. The investigation is ongoing and additional information will
be provided when available.”
Reno police officials declined to further discuss their
investigation.
Burnett said the officer investigating the case told him the
attack will be classified as a hate crime. But Burnett said his
attackers, whose identities are known, remain at large, and the
officer told him it could be two weeks before they’re arrested.
“I’m scared for my life,” Burnett said, adding that he’s
staying with a family friend. “I’m scared to go home. These guys
have nothing to lose.”Burnett said he grew up in Paris and came
out as gay when he was 15. He knows at least one of his attackers
personally. Two of the suspects have been to prison and may be on
parole, he said.
Burnett said he’s attended several parties at the residence and
was invited by his straight friend who lives there. He arrived at the
party several hours earlier with three gay friends. However, the
group left after someone at the party was overheard making anti-gay
remarks such as, “These faggots don’t deserve to be here.
Somebody needs to get them out of there.” Burnett said he didn’t
hear the remarks and wasn’t aware of them when he returned to the
party later in the evening with one of his girlfriends.
Burnett said he was sitting inside a large metal shed called “the
party shop” when he was blindsided with a punch to his left eye.
When he got up and tried to defend himself, one of his attackers
stabbed him in the back with a broken beer bottle. Burnett called the
stab wound “a kill shot” but said fortunately it didn’t
puncture his lung.

Reno, Texas

One of the suspects stabbed him a second time in the right forearm
— cutting into the muscle but missing an artery — before he was
thrown onto a lit burn barrel.
At that point, some of Burnett’s girlfriends managed to slow
down the attackers enough so that he could escape to a vehicle. None
of the other 20 people at the party attempted to stop the attack, he
said.
Burnett’s girlfriends eventually drove him to a hospital in
Sulphur Springs, about 30 miles away.
Burnett said he’s hoping none of his injuries are permanent.
He’s scheduled to return to the doctor on Friday.
Chivas Clem, one of Burnett’s gay friends who accompanied him to
the party, contacted Dallas Voice and other media outlets about the
attack Monday morning. Chivas, an artist who recently moved to Paris
from New York City, said he fears people in the small, conservative
town will try to brush the incident under the rug.
“I intend to make sure the Police Department follows through
with this, and that the local press covers it,” Chivas said. “When
I saw him [Burnett], I vomited because he looked so bad — and I
cried.”
Another one of Burnett’s gay friends, Austin Holloman, said he’s
heard police are considering downgrading the charges to misdemeanors
because the attack occurred at a party. Holloman said he recently
moved to Paris to live with his partner, who’s from there and has
known Burnett since childhood.
“We don’t want people thinking this is OK in this area,”
Holloman said. “We plan on being here forever.”

You're not the boss of me!

Your RightsYou have the right to say no to mythology and religion, and to realize they are one and the same.You have the right to all the information you need to make an informed decision about mythology.You have the right to raise your child as an Atheist, free of shame, fear, or embarrassmentYou have the right to send your children to public schools knowing they will not be taught mythology as truth or science.You have the right NOT to pay higher taxes to compensate for those with religion-based Tax Exempt Status (every church, synagogue, and mosque in the country, scientologists and Moonies, too).You have the right to a voice in politics, and for your elected officials to hear you LOUD AND CLEARYou have the right to any job in our government, from School Board to President.You have the right to a secular government that takes no stand on religion except to prohibit religion's intrusion into itself or your life.You have the right to a government that does not advance religion, fund religion, or depend on religion for guidance.You have the right to be an American Atheist.

What is Atheism

Atheism is the lack of belief in a deity, which implies that nothing exists but natural phenomena (matter), that thought is a property or function of matter, and that death irreversibly and totally terminates individual organic units. This definition means that there are no forces, phenomena, or entities which exist outside of or apart from physical nature, or which transcend nature, or are “super” natural, nor can there be. Humankind is on its own.

The following definition of Atheism was given to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Murray v. Curlett, 374 U.S. 203, 83 S. Ct. 1560, 10 L.Ed.2d (MD, 1963), to remove reverential Bible reading and oral unison recitation of the Lord's Prayer in the public schools:

“Your petitioners are Atheists and they define their beliefs as follows. An Atheist loves his fellow man instead of god. An Atheist believes that heaven is something for which we should work now – here on earth for all men together to enjoy.

An Atheist believes that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction, and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and enjoy it.

An Atheist believes that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment.

He seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to know a god. An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man.

He wants an ethical way of life. He believes that we cannot rely on a god or channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a hereafter.

He believes that we are our brother's keepers; and are keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons and the job is here and the time is now.”

Followers (Gods help you)

who's there?

Bullied to death

Eric Mohat, 17, was harassed so mercilessly in high school that when one bully said publicly in class, "Why don't you go home and shoot yourself, no one will miss you," he did.

Tyler Clementi

Seth Walsh

Police in Tehachapi, California, will not pursue charges against students who taunted and bullied 13-year old gay student Seth Walsh, who hung himself nine days ago and was taken off of life support yesterday. "Several of the kids that we talked to broke down into tears," said police chief Jeff Kermode. "They had never expected an outcome such as this." Other students remain in shock over Walsh's tragic death, and seem to understand that homophobic bullying played a role in Walsh's suicide, yet that doesn't mean they'll break what prevention counselor Daryl Thiesen calls the "culture of silence" that surrounds bullying. "You're told you shouldn't be a snitch or tattler," said Thiesen. Walsh's death comes one day after Texas teen Asher Brown shot himself over anti-gay bullying. These incidents are not isolated, America. This isn't a gay problem, nor are these stories just about nasty brats. We're experiencing an anti-gay bullying epidemic, and one that needs to be addressed, for the aforementioned culture of silence isn't just killing kids, it's killing our nation's future.

Asher Brown

Asher Brown's worn-out tennis shoes still sit in the living room of his Cypress-area home while his student progress report — filled with straight A's — rests on the coffee table. The eighth-grader killed himself last week. He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. Brown, his family said, was "bullied to death" — picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes. Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said. The 13-year-old's parents said they had complained about the bullying to Hamilton Middle School officials during the past 18 months, but claimed their concerns fell on deaf ears. David and Amy Truong said they made several visits to the school to complain about the harassment, and Amy Truong said she made numerous phone calls to the school that were never returned. 'We want justice' Cy Fair ISD officials said Monday that they never received any complaints from Brown's parents before the suicide about the way the boy was being treated at school. School district spokeswoman Kelli Durham said no students, school employees or the boy's parents ever reported that he was being bullied. That statement infuriated the Truongs, who accused the school district of protecting the bullies and their parents. "That's absolutely inaccurate — it's completely false," Amy Truong said. "I did not hallucinate phone calls to counselors and assistant principals. We have no reason to make this up. … It's like they're calling us liars." David Truong said, "We want justice. The people here need to be held responsible and to be stopped. It did happen. There are witnesses everywhere." Numerous comments from parents and students on the Web site of KRIV-TV Channel 26, which also reported a story about Brown's death, stated that the boy had been bullied by classmates for several years and claimed Cy-Fair ISD does nothing to stop such harassment. Durham said the school counselor and an assistant principal received an e-mail from Amy Truong earlier this month, asking them to keep an eye on her son, but Durham said it was because of ongoing concerns at home and not about bullying. Shot himself with pistol Brown was found dead on the floor of his stepfather's closet at the family's home in the 11700 block of Cypresswood about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. He used his stepfather's 9 mm Beretta, stored on one of the closet's shelves, to kill himself. He left no note. David Truong found the teen's body when he arrived home from work. On the morning of his death, the teen told his stepfather he was gay, but Truong said he was fine with the disclosure. "We didn't condemn," he said. His parents said Brown had been called names and endured harassment from other students since he joined Cy-Fair ISD two years ago. As a result, he stuck with a small group of friends who suffered similar harassment from other students, his parents said. His most recent humiliation occurred the day before his suicide, when another student tripped Brown as he walked down a flight of stairs at the school, his parents said. When Brown hit the stairway landing and went to retrieve his book bag, the other student kicked his books everywhere and kicked Brown down the remaining flight of stairs, the Truongs said. Durham said that incident was investigated, but turned up no witnesses or video footage to corroborate the couple's claims. 'I hope you're happy' The Truongs say they just want the harassment to stop so other students do not suffer like their son did and so another family does not have to endure such a tragedy. "Our son is just the extreme case of what happens when (someone is) just relentless," Amy Truong said. To the bullies, she added, "I hope you're happy with what you've done. I hope you got what you wanted and you're just real satisfied with yourself."

Justin Aaberg

WCCO reports on the tragic death of Justin Aaberg, which happened in July: "Justin Aaberg came out as gay when he was 13 and, as his mom found out only after he hanged himself, suffered tremendously inside. 'I actually thought he had the perfect life. I thought out of anybody I knew that he had the perfect life,' said Justin Aaberg's mother, Tammy Aaberg. 'But I guess he didn't think so.' In the weeks since she found her son dead in his room on July 9, Tammy Aaberg has heard from many of her son's friends at Anoka High School. They told her Justin Aaberg had been bullied and had recently broken up with his boyfriend. Those same students also opened up about their own experiences, telling her they feel harassed and unsafe as gay and lesbian students. 'These kids, they just hate themselves. They literally feel like they want to die. So many kids are telling me this,' said Tammy Aaberg, fighting tears." There were five suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin District last year, and a lesbian student there as well as a teacher believe at least three were attributable to anti-gay bullying. The school district asks teachers to "remain neutral" on the bullying because of some conservative dipshits in the district who apparently don't want "gay" being addressed at school: "...name-calling and bullying happen often in the district because teachers and students don't stand up to it. The teachers said that's partly because other teachers are scared and confused about how to interpret the curriculum policy. The Anoka-Hennepin School District said the curriculum policy and bullying are two entirely separate issues. 'It's very difficult. We have a community that has widely varying opinions, and so to respect all families, as the policy says, we ask teachers to remain neutral,' said District Spokeswoman Mary Olson."

Billy Lucas is dead

Greensburg, Ind. — He was a teenager who didn't quite fit in. His classmates said Billy Lucas was bullied for being different. The 15-year-old never told anyone he was gay but students at Greensburg High School thought he was and so they picked on him. "People would call him 'fag' and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he's different basically," said student Dillen Swango. Students told Fox59 News it was common knowledge that children bullied Billy and from what they said, it was getting worse. Last Thursday, Billy's mother found him dead inside their barn. He had hung himself. Students said on that same day, some students told Billy to kill himself. "They said stuff like 'you're like a piece of crap' and 'you don't deserve to live.' Different things like that. Talked about how he was gay or whatever," said Swango. Principal Phil Chapple doesn't deny that students are bullied in the high school, but he said he didn't know Billy was one of the victims. "We were not aware of that situation," said Chapple. It's clear though, on a memorial page created in Billy's honor that many people knew students bullied him. We found comments like "everyone made fun of him" It's a wake up call to a serious problem the school can't ignore. "We're discussing where we are going. Where we are looking to establish a committee," said Principal Chapple. It's a common problem inside Greensburg High School that goes way back. "I was bullied several times because I was gay. I was called f**, queer. i was thrown up against lockers. I would tell the school officials about it and they would dismiss it," said a former student who did not want to be identified. He is 21 years old now and the awful memories of high school came rushing back when he heard about Billy's suicide. "I can't help but take it personally because when all of this was happening to me I was the same age he was. I also attempted to commit suicide." Other students are speaking out on a facebook page created in Billy's honor and it's obvious that bullies have hurt students at Greensburg High School. Billy's death is a wake up call.

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover was 11-- hardly old enough to know his sexuality and yet distraught enough to hang himself last week after school bullies repeatedly called him "gay." Derogatory labels regarding sexual orientation torment kids across the country. The Springfield, Mass., football player and Boy Scout was ruthlessly teased, despite his mother's pleas to the New Leadership Charter School to address the problem. Sirdeaner L. Walker, 43, found Carl hanging by an extension cord on the second floor of the family's home April 6, just minutes before she was going to a meeting to confront school authorities again. "I am brokenhearted," she told ABCNews.com. "We worry about the economy and about Iraq, but we need to be worried about our schools." Walker, who works as a director of homeless programs, said Carl -- a slight child who loved his schoolwork -- had endured endless taunts since he started sixth grade in Septemb

Jaheem Herrera

"On Thursday afternoon, after returning home from Dunaire Elementary School, Jaheem quietly went into his room and hanged himself. His 10-year-old sister, Yerralis, also a fifth-grader, discovered Jaheem’s dead body. 'His sister was screaming, ‘Get him down, get him down,’' said Norman Keene, who helped raise Jaheem since the boy was two years old. When Keene got to the room, he saw Yerralis holding her brother, trying to remove the pressure of the noose her brother had fashioned with a fabric belt. Jaheem was bullied relentlessly, his family said. Keene said the family knew the boy was a target, but until his death they didn’t understand the scope. 'We’d ask him, ‘Jaheem, what’s wrong with you?’' Keene recalled. 'He’d never tell us.' He didn’t want his sister to tell, either. She witnessed much of the bullying, and many times rose to her brother’s defense, Keene said. 'They called him gay and a snitch,' his stepfather said. 'All the time they’d call him this.' In an interview with WSB-TV, the boy’s mother, Masika Bermudez, also said her son was being bullied at school. She said she had complained to the school. She said she asked him about the bullying Thursday when he came home from school and he denied it. She sent him to his room to calm down. It was the last time she would see him alive." The school has subsequently denied there was any bullying taking place.

Hero!

Haunted Man of the Cloth and Pioneer of Gay Rights By MARK OPPENHEIMER Published: September 18, 2010 The death this month of Seymour Pine, the vice officer who in June 1969 led a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, unwittingly galvanizing the gay rights movement, is a reminder that history has its forgotten actors, too. For every star in the history of gay rights — think the politician Harvey Milk, or the comedian Ellen DeGeneres — there are many more bit players, people whose names do not even make the credits. In the world of religion, one of the great neglected actors, a man who had a marquee moment but then fell into obscurity, is the Rev. James Stoll, a Unitarian Universalist who died in 1994. Mr. Stoll, one of the first openly gay ministers in America, had a difficult life, and his demons seemed to follow him to an early grave. But he was hugely responsible for introducing American churchgoers to gay rights. For those who support gay rights, he ought to be a hero; for those troubled by increased acceptance of homosexuality, he makes a vivid villain. Mr. Stoll was born in 1936 in Connecticut. He was educated at Mount Hermon School, in Massachusetts, at San Francisco State University and, finally, at Starr King School for the Ministry, in Berkeley, Calif. After being ordained, he pastored a church in Kennewick, Wash., from 1962 until 1969. After leaving the church in Kennewick — church documents indicate that he was asked to resign — he moved back to the Bay Area. In the words of Mr. Stoll’s friend Leland Bond-Upson, who in 2005 first delivered a sermon about him at a church in Petaluma, Calif., Mr. Stoll took a flat in the Eureka Valley neighborhood of San Francisco “with three others (me the draft counselor, Nick the cabinetmaker and Peter the communist revolutionary), and for a full year we four hosted an unending stream of young visitors, all come to look for America or something.” Soon, in September 1969, Mr. Stoll drove Mr. Bond-Upson and two others in his Volkswagen Fastback to the La Foret conference center in Colorado Springs to attend a convention of about 100 college-age Unitarians. “On the second or third night of the conference,” according to Mr. Bond-Upson, “after dinner, Jim got up to speak. He told us that he’d been doing a lot of hard thinking that summer. Jim told us he could no longer live a lie. He’d been hiding his nature — his true self — from everyone except his closest friends. ‘If the revolution we’re in means anything,’ he said, ‘it means we have the right to be ourselves, without shame or fear.’ “Then he told us he was gay, and had always been gay, and it wasn’t a choice, and he wasn’t ashamed anymore and that he wasn’t going to hide it anymore, and from now on he was going to be himself in public. After he concluded, there was a dead silence, then a couple of the young women went up and hugged him, followed by general congratulations. The few who did not approve kept their peace.” Mr. Stoll was not the first openly gay minister. He had been preceded by at least one man, the Rev. Troy Perry, who the previous year had founded the Metropolitan Community Churches in Los Angeles. That denomination, which has straight members but has always specialized in ministry to queer communities, now claims 43,000 members in 22 countries. But Mr. Stoll was a minister of an established denomination — a liberal one, often so diverse as to seem post-Christian, but nonetheless one with Christian roots. As such, he brought gay rights to the heterosexual Christian world. Over the next year, newly emboldened, Mr. Stoll wrote articles about gay rights and delivered guest sermons at several churches. In July 1970, at their general assembly in Seattle, Unitarians passed a resolution condemning discrimination against homosexuals and bisexuals. Other churches soon liberalized, too. In 1972, for example, the United Church of Christ ordained an openly gay man, and today there are openly gay Episcopal priests and Lutheran ministers. Having pioneered an important change in American Christianity, Mr. Stoll never returned to the ministry. In fact, it seems that he could not. According to letters kept at Harvard, sent in 1970 between church members and Unitarian officials, Mr. Stoll had been suspected of drug use and of inappropriate sexual advances toward young people in the Kennewick congregation. The circumstances of his departure made it unlikely he would find another pulpit. Over the next 25 years, Mr. Stoll had a varied career. He worked as a substance abuse counselor, started a hospice on Maui, in Hawaii, and served as secretary of the San Francisco chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “He died on Dec. 8, 1994,” Mr. Bond-Upson said in his 2005 sermon, “a little short of age 59. He died not of AIDS, but of worn-out heart and lungs. He was never able to lose much weight, nor quit smoking. When it was known he was dying, a stream of friends came to say goodbye. Friends arrived from the A.C.L.U., from inner-city social services, from Hunters Point, from drug abuse treatment centers, from the ministry. Yet despite all this matchmaking, and though his romantic side often found expression, Jim never had for long the all-embracing love he longed for.” Mr. Stoll left no descendants, but he had many heirs.

Victims of hate crimes

All of the following pictures are of victims of hate crimes. Some never recovered from the attacks. above is Albert Dibble

Brandon White

Brandon White

At a press conference this afternoon, Brandon White, the Atlanta man beaten by a gang outside of a grocery store in a video posted online that went viral earlier this week, spoke out about the attack.
Said White: "I feel that if a straight person can walk to the store and not have a problem, I should be able to do the same. I shouldn't have to worry about whether I should look over my shoulder, or is this person going to attack me, or is that person going to attack me for just being a gay male. I feel as though I should have justice, because those guys didnt feel my pain. They didn't care whether or not I was injured. I could have died that day. They don't know what they do to people. They're monsters."
White got a round of applause when he added: "By them going ahead and putting it on the internet, I feel that they wanted the attention...they wanted to make themselves look like they were brave or strong, but in my opinion, I'm the brave one."
White continued: “Who's to say they won't come after me again...Who's to say this time they won't try to kill me. All because I wanted to speak up about the situation."

And still...

Three men have been arrested in an alleged anti-gay assault in St. Cloud, Minnesota, according to the St. Cloud Times: "The incident happened at 2:24 a.m. in the alley near DB Searle’s, 18 Fifth Ave. S. The men hurled gay slurs at the man and beat him, said Martin Sayre of the St. Cloud police department. The victim is identified as a 22-year-old from St. Louis Park. He had cuts and bruises to his face and hands, Sayre said. Matthew Warren Thomas, 24, of Rogers, Chad Vincent Hands, 21, of Elk River, and Ryan Andrew Frane, 23, of St. Cloud were arrested and taken to Stearns County Jail." The men have not yet been charged.

2009 beating of Jack Price

Michael Goucher

Michael was murdered by someone he met on the internet. He was stabbed more than 20 times and left to die in the woods. Michael was 21.

Michael Causer

After beating Michael to death one of his "friends" said, "He’s a little queer, he deserves it."After 13 hours of deliberation late last week, a jury in Liverpool acquitted Gavin Alker for the murder of teenager Michael Causer, who was attacked by three other youths while he slept last July and remained in a coma for a week before dying in the hospital. Causer's lethal injuries were reportedly caused by blunt trauma from a hardback book:

Bloody Hell

A cowardly gang of five brutally beat a teen in an anti-gay attack in Bridgwater, UK: "Jason Saunders, aged 18, was left with a broken nose and bruising after being jumped on by a five-strong gang after they started shouting abuse at him as he walked to work from the Sydenham area of Bridgwater with his partner, Gary Holman. The attack happened June 23, at around 6.40pm. Turning on to College Way, he walked past a group of five people. The group started shouting abuse at him, calling him 'queer' and 'ginger', telling him to 'sort out his hair colour'. Jason said: 'I asked them why they were shouting abuse at me and the next thing I know, all five people were attacking me. They were kicking and punching me in the face and still calling me names.' After the attack, Jason was rushed to Bridgwater Hospital, before being taken to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton as doctors were worried about him drifting in and out of consciousness. He has been left traumatised and in fear of his safety. Left with a broken nose and bruising, he has become totally reliant on other people." According to police, one 29-year-old man was arrested and released on bail pending further

Man Involved In Galveston Anti-Gay Attack Sentenced

Last year, Andy Towle wrote about an anti-gay hate attack at Robert's Lafitte, a gay bar in Galveston, Texas, in which two patrons was attacked with a 4-pound stone. One of the three assailants reached a plea agreement in January for a five-year sentence. On Friday, one of the other remaining two assailants received their verdicts.

"Alejandro Sam Gray, 18, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with an enhancement for a hate crime, Galveston County Assistant District Attorney Jon Hall said.

Judge Susan Criss, of Galveston’s 212th District Court, sentenced Gray to 20 years on both counts, but his sentences will run concurrently, Hall said."

Gray's mother told the Daily News that she thinks her son's sentence is too harsh. She claims that "he isn’t a bad kid” and told the paper that he "was adamant about graduating high school and wanted to be a video game designer, artist and dance choreographer."

One of the victims Marc Bosaw, who needed 12 staples to shut the wound to his head, had the this to say about the judge's verdict:

"I am quite off balance, and I stutter some. I recently fell and was hospitalized with a broken shoulder and head injury again.” He added, “I don’t want this to ruin their lives, but people have been telling me I guess my life was ruined also."

Transgender Woman Found Beaten to Death in Houston Field

"The body of the 51-year-old was found in the 4300 block of Garrott near Richmond. Police said her body was covered in bruises and showed signs that she tried to fight back. Williams said she has been in constant contact with police. 'She went down fighting and she was literally beaten to death,' she said. Police said Ical was previously known as Ruben Dario Ical. Investigators are not calling this a hate crime, but they’re not ruling out anything at this time. “It concerns me a lot,” said Lou Weaver, who is helping plan a vigil for Ical. 'A lot of my friends live around here. I drive down this road constantly going to and from where I live.' Weaver and Williams said it doesn’t appear as if Ical has family living in the Houston area. They’ve seen her at some of their transgender support group meetings and have taken on the task of putting up fliers throughout the neighborhood. 'We’re just interested in solving this crime,' said Williams."

"The Houston area now has seven (7) unsolved transgender murder cases in the past decade...Equality Texas asks for the public’s help in solving Ms. Ical’s murder. We also call upon area media outlets to be respectful in their reporting on this case. Several media reports have referred to the victim using male pronouns. Standard media style, including the Associated Press, is clear that transgender people should be referred to using pronouns that reflect their gender identity."

Kenneth Cummings

Jason Gage

Jason Gage (1976 - March 11, 2005) was a 29-year-old man who was murdered in his Waterloo, Iowa apartment, by an assailant who claimed Gage made sexual advances. Jason Gage was last seen alive on March 11, 2005, socializing with friends in Waterloo's downtown bars. Sometime that night he went home to his apartment in the Russell-Lamson building. With him was 23-year-old Joseph Lawrence. Gage was originally from Oelwein, Iowa. He'd lived in Chicago and Milwaukee before moving to Waterloo years earlier. He settled downtown, and worked waiting tables in the Italian restaurant of his apartment building. He enrolled at the College of Hair Design in Waterloo, Iowa, in January 2003, and his friends said he dreamed of working in a big city salon.[1] Lawrence moved to Iowa from Farmington, New Mexico, where he'd been an oil worker. New Mexico court records show that Lawrence pleaded guilty to possession of one ounce of marijuana in January 2003. He spent 30 days in the San Juan County Jail. Lawrence was born in Seaford, Delaware and was adopted at age 5. He moved with his adoptive parents to Maryland, New Jersey, and then to Ohio. He was removed from his birthparents for severe abuse and spent several years in foster care before he was 5. He has a history of mental illness for which he spent time in mental health group homes and hospitalizations. He has a history of intermittent rage disorder for which he has been treated in the past. During his time in Ohio, he decided he no longer wanted to be adopted and moved back into foster care at age 16. From there, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and then on to New Mexico. In early 2003, Lawrence moved from Farmington, New Mexico to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to be with his girlfriend—Elizabeth Hostetler—who was six months pregnant with their child. The couple—who had been together for a year—decided to move to Cedar Falls, because Hostetler had many "lifelong friends" in the area who could help with the baby . Hostetler said she introduced Gage and Lawrence about a week before Gage's murder. Hostetler had met Gage through an acquaintance and had known him for about two years. Witnesses said Gage and Lawrence were together the night Gage was killed. They were seen at Kings & Queens, the local gay club, before heading to an after hours party at The Times Bar. The two left at some point and headed back to Gage's apartment. According to Hostetler, Gage told Lawrence that he could wait for a ride at his apartment, which was two blocks away from The Times Bar. A female friend and roommate of Hostetler's said Lawrence called late Friday or early Saturday asking for a ride home from downtown, because he "didn't like the hospitality of the place," and needed a ride or he was going to "end up in jail." An investigator said he received a call from a man who had been asked to give Lawrence a ride home from a downtown club. Lawrence never showed up for the ride, and the man said he later heard that from Hostetler that Lawrence had beat up Gage. In the early hours of March 12, phone records show Lawrence sent several text messages to friends in Iowa and New Mexico via his cell phone. "I just killed a guy I think, " one read. A second sent to Michael Bailey in New Mexico flashed "U need to call me soon." A phone conversation between Bailey and Lawrence, in which Lawrence said "some guy" tried to "hit on him real bad" and described "a fight that got way out of hand," indicated that Lawrence may not have known Gage was dead Lawrence gave a videotaped statement at the Waterloo police station after plain-clothes police officer went to the home he shared Hostetler and asked him to come in for questioning. A police affidavit Lawrence acknowledged hitting Gage twice with a bottle and stabbing him with a piece of glass On December 16, 2005, as part of a plea agreement, Joseph Lawrence entered an Alford plea in the case of Jason Gage's murder. The plea allowed Lawrence to avoid admitting guilt while acknowledging that he would likely have been found guilty of Gage's murder had the case gone to trial. Originally charged with first degree murder, which would have meant a life sentence without parole, Lawrence pleaded to the lesser charge of second degree murder. As part of the plea agreement, Lawrence also waived his right to appeal the plea and the sentence, and to pay a $150,000 civil penalty to Gage's estate. After entering his plea, Lawrence added "I have nothing appropriate to say," and sat silent during his sentencing. Judge Bruce Zager sentenced Lawrence to 50 years, which was the mandatory punishment under Iowa law. Lawrence must serve at least 70 percent—35 years—of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Jimmy Lee Dean

Dean, a native of Cincinnati, had lived in Dallas for about 20 years, and had lost contact with his family. Dean worked as a freelance web designer, but his true love is music and playing his guitar, and his goal is to open a home recording studio to help other artists cut demos.Around midnight on July 17, Dean left Alexandre's — one of two gay bars he'd been to that night — and began walking back towards his apartment complex 50 yards away. Michael Robinson, a 48-year-old gay man and car salesman, walked out of Zini's Pizzaria around the same time. He encountered Dean, who was walking in the same direction, and the two struck up a conversation. Near the corner of Throckmorton Street and Dickerson Avenue, they passed Bobby Jack Singleton, 26, and Jonathan Russell Gunter, 31, walking in the opposite direction. Dean gave them a nod, having recalled seeing them there before, and kept walking. Singleton and Gunter doubled back and came up behind Robinson and Dean. Robinson turned to confront them. A verbal exchange occurred between the parties, and Robinson urged Dean to keep walking. When Singleton and Gunter got between him and Dean, Robinson ran to his apartment one block away and retrieved a kitchen knife. When he returned, Dean lay on the ground with Singleton and Gunter kicking him, stomping his face and yelling things like “you gay ass motherfucker, punk-ass bitch,” according to Robinson. Singleton and Gunter attacked Dean, pistol-whipped him with a 9mm Glock handgun, as well as kicking and stomping his head, face, and body. Witnesses said that Singleton and Gunter used anti-gay epithets before, during, and after the attack. When Robinson approached with the knife, one of the men pulled the gun on him that they'd used to beat Dean. Distracted, they began walking a way from Dean. Norman Draper, 26, a heterosexual passing motorist acting as designated driver for some gay friends, saw Singleton and Gunter pass behind his car on foot, and saw Dean lying in the street. Draper left his vehicle, put flares on the road, and called 911. A former security officer and Police Explorer, he used latex gloves to retrieve the gun that Singleton and Gunter had tossed into some high grass, as well as a bloody knife lying next to Dean.5) Singleton and Gunter later admitted to police that they'd targeted Dean because they thought it would be easier to rob a gay man. Dean was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. He suffered a broken jaw and vertebrae, as well as facial fractures and swelling. Witnesses at the scene said that after the beating, Dean's nosed was attached only by a piece of skin. Dean's injuries were so bad that police were unable to interview him. The attack left Dean unable to talk to police for at least 24 hours, and hospitalized for 10 days. His jaw and cheek bones were crushed from kicks to the head. Seven months after the beating, Dean still lived with pain from the attack, suffered depression, and had not regained his sense of smell, He awaited surgery to repair and replace death damage or lost as a result of the attack, but surgery to repair his drooping eyelid was unsuccessful, making it unlikely that his facial injuries from the attack will be repaired surgically. Following the attack, Robinson went on to organize an hate crimes advocacy group, United Community Against Gay Hate Crimes. Singleton and Gunter were apprehended at the scene by security guards from the nearby clubs. They were arrested and held on bail; $300,000 for Singleton, and $300,500 for Gunter. They were charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, a first-degree felony, because investigators recovered a set of keys and a Zippo lighter from them, which belonged to Dean. On July 31, the Dallas County prosecutors announced that they would not seek hate crimes charges against Singleton and Gunter. Dallas police plan to categorize the attack as a hate crime for statistical purposes. Prosecutors, however, decided not to pursue hate crime charges because Singleton and Gunter already face the maximum penalty — up to 99 years — if convicted. Under Texas law, a hate crime conviction by a jury could not result in enhanced sentencing, but a hate crimes charge could put a greater burden of proof on the prosecution. Texas law dictates that a hate crimes designation is made during the sentencing faze of a trial, after conviction. On March 4, 2009, Gunter was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the attack on Dean. He face up to life in prison after being convicted of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.

Ukea Davis and Stephanie Thomas

Jorge Steven Lopez

"On November 14 the body of a gay 19 year old was found a few miles away from the town in which he was residing in called Caguas. He was a very well known person in the gay community of Puerto Rico, and very loved. He was found on the site of an isolated road in the city of Cayey, he was partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered, both arms, both legs, and the torso. This has caused a huge reaction from the gay community here, but its a difficult situation. Never in the history of Puerto Rico has a murder been classified as a hate crime. Even though we have to follow federal mandates and laws, many of the laws in which are passed in the USA such as Obama’s new bill, do not always directly get practiced in Puerto Rico. The police agent that is handling this case said on a public televised statement that 'people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen'. As If the boy murdered Jorge Steven Lopez was asking to get killed..." His mother later said: “When my son told me he was gay, I told him, ‘Now, I love you more.’ I want to tell the world that hatred is not born with human beings, it is a seed that is planted by adults and is fostered creating a climate of intolerance and violence. We must change our ways and understand that anyone …could have been my son. And I want everybody to know that Jorge Steven was a very much loved son.”

Andrew Frost and Jean Rolland

Amancio Corrales

Christopher Skinner

A crowd estimated at around 1,000 turned out for a vigil in honor of Christopher Skinner, a 27-year-old gay man in Toronto who was beaten by a group of people in an SUV and then run over and killed while walking home from a birthday party last week. Late last week, authorities held a press conference at which they released images of the SUV they believed killed Skinner. Authorities are not sure what the motivation behind the murder was, but they have some theories they are floating. Based on a security camera video, police say Skinner may have accidentally touched the SUV while hailing a cab, inspiring the violent attack which took his life. It's also entirely possible that a group of kids, emboldened by alcohol, saw a vulnerable looking guy they perceived to be gay trying to hail a cab on the street, stopped, beat the crap out of him because of hatred for gays, and then ran him over.

Ian Baynham

"Ian Baynham, 62, was punched and kicked to the ground on 25 September. He suffered head injuries and died in hospital on Tuesday. A 30-year-old man who was with him suffered minor injuries. Police have started a murder inquiry and have appealed for information about CCTV images of two women who were in the area at the time. Officers said Mr Bayman (sic) and his friend were initially verbally abused by a woman as they got off a bus near Duncannon Street. He went to remonstrate with her but she and her two friends, a man and another woman, attacked him. The suspects were seen seated in the area before the assault at about 2245 BST. They are all described as being aged between 16 and 20 and the two females (seen above, in a surveillance photo) had blonde hair. The male was described as dark-skinned, about 5ft 8in tall (1.72m), with black hair." Baynham and his friend had apparently taken the bus into London to enjoy a night out.

Daniel Fetty

Michael Wrenn

Warren and Hudy were walking home from Seattle's Belltown neighborhood around midnight on August 4. Walking down the 2200 block of First Avenue, they passed a group of six men, one of whom was urinating. One of the men in the group offered Hudy $20 to tell the man who was urinating that he had a “red-fox penis,” meant to be a comment on his penis size.1) Hudy declined, and he and Wrenn continued walking. 2) The man who had been urinating stopped and approached Wrenn and Hudy and asked, “What are you guys, fags?” When Wrenn answered “Yeah. I'm gay. What's your problem,” the man shoved Hudy aside, pushed Wrenn to the ground and began punching him. After the attack, the men ran away. Hudy followed the men while also talking to 911 on his cell phone. and eventually led police to them. The primary attacker had fled, but the police were able to get his name. At the scene, medics treated Wrenn for a bloody nose, cuts to his chin, and bruises to his body. He would later develop two black eyes. After the attack, Wrenn and Hudy spoke to the policeman on the scene, and explained to him that they believed the attack was a hate crime, motivated by Wrenn's sexual orientation. The police office did not get out of his car during the interview.3) When Wrenn emphasized that the only reason he was attacked was his sexual orientation, the officer responded that to him that being gay “is your issue.”4) The same officer later filed a which made no mention of the attacker's anti-gay remarks or the bias-based motive of the attack. The incident was classified as an assault, and the “bias crime” box was unchecked. In an interview with Seattle Gay News, a Seattle Police Department spokesman stood by the officer's actions and the veracity of the report. Seattle has a hate crime statute that covers investigations of crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Seattle City Councilmenber Tom Rasmussen asked the Seattle Police Department to look into the incident, and on August 8 Wrenn was informed that a bias crimes detective was being assigned to the case.5) No arrest has been made in Wrenn's assault.

Lisa Craig

On July 4, Craig, 35, and her family – her partner Debbie Riley, 37, and their five-year-old and nine-year-old daughters – went to Boston's Piers Park to watch the fireworks.1) Around 9:00 p.m., an “intoxicated” teenager urinated in view of their children. Craig protested, and the teenager cursed and yelled anti-gay slurs at Craig.2) Riley said the teenagers continued to harass them.3), and followed them through the park taunting them with anti-gay slurs throughout the evening.4) After the fireworks, at about 10:40 p.m. Craig and Riley encountered the teenagers again, after buying ice cream for their daughters.5) The teenagers began fighting and accidentally shoved Craig's and Riley's five-year-old into the ice cream truck.6) Craig then turned and confronted the teenagers. One of them recognized the family and again started yelling anti-gay slurs. The teenage girl then punched Craig. The rest of the teenagers set upon Craig, knocking her to the ground punching and kicking her as she lay on the ground. Craig's head hit the pavement and she was knocked unconscious.7) The teenagers punched and kicked her as she lay on the ground, with her partner and children watching.8) C One of the teenagers grabbed Craig's head and repeatedly slammed her head into the sidewalk, in an attack that lasted several minutes.9) The teenagers grabbed Craig's purse and ran off when a police officer told them to leave before they were arrested. Riley criticized the officer for not arresting Craig's attackers.10) Riley said Massaport police could have arrested the teenagers, but the officer yelled “Get the fuck out of here before I arrest you!”11) With Craig unconscious and an “orange-sized lump” growing on her head, Riley called for help, directing the crowd to call 911 and summon police. But, Craig would later say, “there were no police to be found.” As their daughters screamed “Don't die, mommy!”, several men in the park helped Riley and Craig until a police officer arrived. The officer reported, “Approximately 20 teenage males and females were hostile and verbally threatening the victim, her children.”12) Craig was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where doctors operated to slow the bleeding in her skull.13) Craig underwent two operations and received more than 200 stitches.14) Over 150 members of Boston's LGBT community15) held a rally in Piers Park on July 26, where speakers urged the crowed to take action in response to the hate crime against Craig and her family.16) Anita Santiago, 15, was arrested and indicted for assault and battery. Santiago disputed Craig's version of events in a civil case deposition. Santiago claimed she and Craig exchanged words over Craig's daughter being pushed, but that Craig put her hands on her before she punched Craig. On December 4, 2003, Santiago was indicted as a “youthful offender,” and charged with aggravated assault and battery. The Suffolk County district attorney decided not to prosecute Santiago for a hate crime in the attack on Craig. A spokesperson for the D.A.'s office said that prosecutors could not prove that Santiago made the anti-gay statements attributed to her. Craig and Riley filed a civil suit against the the Massachusetts Port Authority for reckless disregard of public safety, for failing to have sufficient police forces in the park. Depositions in the civil case showed that Massport planned to assign two officers to the park, however the lieutenant in charge of the East Boston patrols testified that he repeatedly warned against under staffing the park on a night when thousands of people would gather to watch fireworks. Documents showed that Massport police were trying to reduce overtime costs. Captain Michael Grady, in charge of scheduling, declined to pay the $300 overtime costs that an additional officer would have cost Massport spent $600,000 defending itself in the suit and then settled in the fall of 2006, for $205,000, under a confidentiality agreement with the plaintiffs. On July 12, 2005, Santiago was sentenced to one year of probation after pleading guilty and admitting to having attacked Craig. Santiago was ordered to stay away from Craig, obtain her GED, be evaluated for anger management counseling, and pay Craig $65 per month during probation. http://www.lgbthatecrimes.org/doku.php/lisa-craig

Matthew Shepard

Matthew left a bar in Laramie Wyoming with two men who took him out in the country tied him to a fence and beat him unconscious. He was found the next day tied to the fence by a cyclist. He died three days later in a Denver hospital. His killers are each serving two life sentences without parole.

Steve Domer

On October 30 2007, Domer's burned car was found. Domer's body was found by a hunter at about 5:00 p.m.9) in a ravine in McClain County10) on November 4. His body was bound with duct tape, and a wire hanger was around his neck.

Roberto Duncanson

Good news—Omar Willock will be behind bars no fewer than 23 years for the stabbing death of 20-year-old Roberto Duncanson (pictured) in May of 2007. Willock claimed Duncanson flirted with him on the street, so he called him a faggot and followed him for several blocks while shouting anti-gay slurs before murdering Willock. The case was originally charged as a hate crime, but that charge was later dropped based on shaky eyewitness testimony.

Paul Broussard

Before there was Matthew Shepard or James Byrd Jr., there was Paul Broussard. Broussard, a 27-year-old gay banker from Houston, was brutally beaten and stabbed to death by a gang of 10 youths in the city’s Montrose area on July 4, 1991. Seven years prior to the legendary murders of Shepard and Byrd, Broussard’s case became one of the first anti-gay hate crimes in the nation to be covered by the mainstream media. The Broussard case also precipitated Texas’ first hate crimes law. “I think if it hadn’t been for the Paul Broussard case, the Matthew Shepard case would not have developed as it did,” said Ray Hill, a longtime Houston gay-rights activist who helped bring Broussard’s killers to justice. “The Matthew Shepard case had the benefit of the field already being plowed. You just had to plant it.” Andy Kahan, who heads Houston’s Crime Victims Assistance Office, began working on Broussard’s murder shortly after he was appointed to the position in 1992. Sixteen years later, Kahan still hasn’t been able to put down the case. Jon Buice, the only one of Broussard’s 10 killers who remains in prison for the crime, will again be up for parole in 2009. “It was humungous down here,” Kahan said of the murder. “It echoed a firestorm for obvious reasons. You had 10 middle-class youth from a well-to-do suburb specifically targeting gay males. And this was not just an anomaly. “They had come down several times previously as well ,” he continued. “You have a pack of wolves that went after three men who were just minding their own business leaving a club. It touched a nerve. Hate crimes wasn’t on anybody’s radar until Paul Broussard met his grisly death.” ‘Where’s Heaven?’ Broussard and his two friends, Cary Anderson and Richard Delaunay, were walking back to their car after a night out in the Montrose at about 2:30 a.m. The 10 youths approached in two vehicles and asked for directions to Heaven, a gay bar. After Broussard and his friends told them the route — an indication the three were gay — the youths jumped out and attacked them. Anderson and Delaunay managed to escape after sustaining only minor injuries, but when Broussard turned down a dead-end street, he was cornered. The youths pummeled him with their fists, their steel-toed boots, a two-by-four studded with nails and at least one knife. Broussard fought back but suffered a broken rib and crushed testicles, as well as stab wounds to the stomach and chest. He died about eight hours later at St. Joseph Hospital. Hill, who then served as an unofficial liaison between Houston’s LGBT community and the police department, said he was summoned to the scene shortly after the attack. Gay-bashings were relatively common in the Montrose at the time, Hill said, but law enforcement rarely took them seriously. “By 1991, I was not willing to accept that,” Hill said. “I said this is not going to be another hate crime that is not going to get investigated.” Hill helped raise reward money from Montrose-area businesses, and he organized a protest a week after the murder that drew 1,200 people, blocking traffic. The case was quickly elevated to the front page of the daily paper and to the top of TV newscasts. “This was the first nationally publicized gay-bashing killing, and the whole purpose of that was to identify the culprits using the media as the vehicle,” Hill said. And the strategy worked. A few weeks after the attack, police got a tip from one of the suspect’s girlfriends that eventually led to all 10 youths. Seven of the 10 were only 17, and the eldest was 22. They were all residents of the Woodlands, a suburb halfway between Houston and Huntsville, who’d attended the same high school. The suspects became known as the Woodlands 10. According to news reports, the 10 boys had been drinking and partying for a few days before the attack when they decided to travel to the Montrose to engage in what had become a ritual — harassing and sometimes physically assaulting gays. They drove around asking for directions to Heaven, and when people indicated that they knew the location of the bar, the youths would throw “queer rocks” at them. Earlier the same evening, they’d hit a car windshield with one of the rocks and struck another man in the mouth. Five of the 10 youths were sentenced to probation, which included boot camp and community service in the LGBT community. Two of those five violated their probation and were sent to prison. Three of the remaining five youths were sentenced to 15 years in prison, one was sentenced to 20 years, and Buice — the knife-man who inflicted the fatal wounds — got the longest sentence, 45 years. The saga continues Back in Warner Robins, Ga., where Broussard grew up, his mother said she was getting ready for work when the phone rang about 6 a.m. on July 4. It was a man calling from the hospital to tell her what had happened and that her son wasn’t likely to survive. “The phone call will stay in my mind for the rest of my life — it was an absolute nightmare,” said Broussard’s mother, Nancy Rodriguez. “I remember begging him, just do what you can. … They did everything they could for him. He never had a chance.” Rodriguez said her son had been an Eagle Scout and an honor roll student who played in the high school band and sang in the church choir. “He was a very good son, a loving son,” she said. “Everybody loved Paul. He had tons and tons of friends.” Broussard moved from Georgia to College Station to attend Texas A&M University, and he worked two jobs to put himself through school, his mother said. After graduating, he moved to Houston. Rodriguez said her son phoned home every week and was especially close to his younger brother and sister. In fact, at the time of his murder, he was saving money to bring his sister to Houston for a visit. Broussard had come out to his family a few years earlier, while he was still in college, his mother said. The family was supportive, and while she feared things like HIV/AIDS, she never dreamed he’d fall victim to anti-gay violence. “I never even knew about gay-bashing,” Rodriguez said. “I got quite an education after Paul was murdered.” Since her son’s death, Rodriguez has been active in groups like PFLAG, Parents of Murdered Children and Compassionate Friends. She’s also worked tirelessly to ensure that his killers serve as much of their sentences as possible. Even now, with all but Buice having been released, she must travel to Texas every two years to testify at a parole hearing. Rodriguez said preparing for the hearings can take up to six months. The case has gotten renewed attention from the media in recent years due to a storyline about Hill, who’s become an advocate for Buice’s release. Hill, an ex-con himself who hosts a radio show for prisoners and their families, said he no longer believes Broussard’s murder was motivated by anti-gay hate. Hill also said he believes Buice — a model prisoner who’s expressed remorse for the crime —is fully rehabilitated. Hill’s stance has led to a bitter, emotional dispute with Rodriguez and Kahan. But all parties agree about one thing, which is that the legacy of the case hasn’t died. “Certainly the life of Paul Broussard is not worth any of this, but out of that came a lot of public awareness,” Hill acknowledged. “Before Paul Broussard, people did not make apologies for their prejudices against gay people. I think it has resulted in some deep and pretty broad socio-cultural changes.”

Ryan Skipper

Ryan was stabbed to death on a stretch of rural road in central Florida. Though comments had allegedly been made by his killers about his sexuality, the focus of the trial is on the robbery. No mention was made of the remarks in prosecutors opening statements. Ryan was 21.Second Killer in Ryan Keith Skipper Murder Found Guilty William Brown Jr. has been found guilty of first degree murder and robbery in the March 2007 death of Ryan Keith Skipper: "The verdict was announced at 2:56 p.m. Jurors had been deliberating since 12:34 p.m. Brown will be sentenced to life in prison Dec. 1. During this morning's closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Cass Castillo rejected Brown's statement to detectives that he 'blacked out' during the 2007 stabbing attack." Brown's accomplice, Joseph Bearden was found guilty of second-degree murder, theft of a motor vehicle, accessory after the fact to robbery with a weapon, tampering with evidence, and dealing in stolen property on February 27 of this year. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years.

Isaac and Julio

27 year old Isaac Ali Dani Peréz Triviño (left) was born in Spain. 32 year old Julio Anderson Luciano (right) was born in Brazil. They lived together in the Spanish province of Vigo and were planning to get married.Both were stabbed to death by Jacobo Piñeiro Rial in their apartment in the early morning of January 13th, 2006. The bodies showed a total of 57 stab wounds, according to forensics. * After killing them, Piñeiro took a shower and cleaned himself up. He filled a suitcase with some of their belongings to make it look like a robbery and then spilled clothing all over the place. He poured alcohol over everything, including his victims' bodies, turned on the gas spigot on the stove, and set everything on fire. Piñeiro was acquitted.

Larry King

The E.O. Green School shooting refers to the February 12, 2008, murder of Lawrence "Larry" Fobes King, a fifteen-year-old student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, United States. He was shot and killed by fellow student, fourteen-year-old Brandon McInerney. McInerney has been charged as an adult with premeditated murder with enhancements of discharge of a firearm and a hate crime; he is being held in lieu of US$770,000 bail, and faces a sentence of 50 years to life imprisonment if convicted. The motive for the shooting remains under investigation. Newsweek has described the shooting as "the most prominent gay-bias crime since the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard", bringing attention to issues of gun violence as well as gender expression and sexual identity of teenagers.

Scott Libby

Scott was beaten and strangled to death by a man he knew who purportedly owed him money. The man now claims it was because Scott made sexual advances toward him. He said when Scott put hands on him he hit him twice in the nose and Scott persisted so he beat him to death. When Scotts body was found in his car which had been left on railroad tracks and struck by a train, there were no injuries to Scott's nose.

Angie Zapata

Angie was murdered by a sex partner who discovered she was transgender. When questioned he replied, "I think I killed it." He was sentenced to life without parole.

James Parkes

The 22-year–old, who the ECHO understands is a trainee constable with Merseyside police and has been named as James Parkes, was attacked by up to 13 people at 10pm last night when out with three friends on Stanley Street. He is currently in hospital with multiple skull fractures, a fractured eye socket and a fractured cheek bone.

Keith Phoenix Gets Hate Crime Conviction in Sucuzhañay Case

Keith Phoenix, who with his accomplice Hakim Scott attacked a pair of Ecuadorean immigrant brothers and taunted them with anti-gay, anti- Hispanic slurs as they walked home from a night of drinking in December 2008, has been convicted of second-degree murder as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime, for the murder and assault of Jose and Romel Sucuzhañay, respectively. Phoenix's first trial resulted in a mistrial in May after one juror refused to continue. Gay City News reports: "Phoenix, 30, and Hakim Scott, 27, assaulted the brothers after mistaking them for a gay couple as they were walking home early in the morning on December 7, 2008 in Brooklyn’s Bushwick section. The two Ecuadorian immigrants were huddled close together to stay warm. Romel said an anti-Latino slur was used. Two other witnesses heard an anti-gay slur. Phoenix was convicted on the top counts he faced and could get as much as 40 years in prison for the killing when he is sentenced on August 5. His first trial ended in a mistrial after one juror held out for a manslaughter conviction while the other 11 wanted to convict on second-degree murder. The first jury did not believe the attack was a hate crime. Scott was convicted on manslaughter and attempted assault charges on May 6, though not as hate crimes. Scott will be sentenced on July 14." Phoenix faces life in prison.